Today’s guest blogger is Alison Pruett, Marketing Manager of InterviewStream – the pioneer in online video interviewing. Since 2003, InterviewStream (an NPAworldwide Alliance Partner) has helped companies generate great candidate experiences and remarkable returns through Web-based video screening, interviewing and preparation. InterviewStream provides a best-practice-based approach and a flexible adoption model that works with customers’ unique needs and business goals to achieve breakthrough results. Clients rely on InterviewStream for the perfect combination of proven value and endless possibility.
The world of staffing will always be highly competitive. Staffing firms and RPOs must compete with each other to find the best talent, and talent acquisition professionals must always effectively sell their candidates to hiring managers. Firms, at their most basic level, must fight each other to get as many placements as possible to increase revenue and grow their brand.
Simply put, more placements means more revenue. According to Bullhorn research, “The single most important metric used to by staffing firms to measure their own success in 2013, as ranked by owners, managers, directors, presidents, and executives, was ‘total number of placements.’” Similarly, these higher-ups in staffing agencies generally used total number of placements as the principle metric to rank their salespeople’s effectiveness.
So for both the executives and talent acquisition professionals, finding more efficient ways to handle more incoming applicants and place candidates will always help the bottom line for the company. It also makes the star recruiters look even better to the higher-ups, since number of placements is such a key statistic in the evaluation of the front-end of the company.
Video can help increase the number of placements by allowing staffing firms to handle more candidates and share them to more hiring managers. Recruiters can utilize video to more quickly and effectively screen potential candidates. Our previous InterviewStream blog, Video for Volume Recruiting, details some of the ways recruiters for employers and RPOs can process more incoming applications as well as find more star candidates.
By making the process more efficient, a staffing agency has more time to find more opportunities for a candidate. This increases the chance of making more high-quality placements that fit well for both the employer and employee. Additionally, video allows for a recruiter to more accurately assess and record a candidate’s strengths and weakness as they relate to any particular opening.
While processing more applications and finding more candidates certainly helps recruiters generate a larger pool of talent, the hiring process is only just beginning. Now it’s time to sell the candidates to hiring managers, but video can make this process more effective as well.
Obviously, not every applicant is going to be a good fit for every opening. It’s a given that each employer will have its own unique culture and values that determine a new hire’s compatibility with the company. Someone may have all the requisite skills and education but not fit within the culture, or someone may fit in well but lack the technical skills necessary to succeed in a position. It’s easy to disqualify an applicant during the screening process based on concrete job requirements, but assessing compatibility for the intangibles is more subjective and difficult.
Video can help a staffing agency initially screen an applicant for compatibility with certain opportunities prior to any face-to-face interview. Instead of wasting time with a lengthy phone screen, candidates can complete the interview on their own time and recruiters can view it at their convenience. Without the hassle of schedule compatibility, it’s easier for both parties, and with the added visual aspect of video, recruiters can more accurately identify a candidate’s fit for a particular job posting. The end result is the ability to send a more desirable candidate to the hiring manager and a better chance at a placement.
InterviewStream’s online video interviewing platform allows staffing agencies to send copies of a candidate’s video interview to interested hiring managers. A few clicks generate a unique link that can be emailed to the hiring manager so that he/she can get a more detailed sense of the candidate’s abilities and cultural fit. It makes it quick and easy to share and review candidates.
More importantly, the hiring managers can personally view and identify the candidate’s intangible qualities in an efficient, time-saving manner. Some candidates may be a difficult sell for a position, but a video record that exemplifies their communication skills or personality can make a convincing argument to a hiring manager. The best recruiters can find candidates that may not necessarily fit squarely into a job description but still have the ability and desire to learn and succeed in that position. Video can really help sell this type of candidate to an unconvinced hiring manager who is reluctant to give the candidate a shot at an in-person interview.
Ultimately, an employer will only trust a staffing agency that provides them with quality candidates. By filling positions with candidates who may not precisely fit the description of the original posting but still succeed at the job and grow into a trusted role with the company, talent acquisition professionals can build rapport with their clients and create more placement opportunities in the future.
Staffing firms and RPOs that rely solely on traditional recruiting techniques have to spend more time on each candidate with less concrete options for assessing his/her most important, intangible qualities. It’s a less efficient process that ultimately reduces the ability to reach a high volume of quality candidates and connect them with the best possible opportunities.
However, staffing firms and RPOs that utilize new techniques and technology have the edge in reach, efficiency, and effectiveness. They can gain credibility and build relationships with employers, which helps them create more placements and generate more revenue.